Sales of a particular product or service may be based upon how well that product or service is marketed to a consumer. One form of marketing is a coupon, typically in paper form, for a discount toward the product or service. Some coupons may be retailer specific, for example, only redeemable for the discount at a particular retailer, while other coupons may be product specific from a manufacturer and redeemable at any retailer.
A coupon, while typically in paper form, may be in digital form and may be referred to as a digital promotion. A digital promotion may be selected or “clipped” via a mobile phone and saved to a digital wallet for redemption at a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, for example. A typical coupon is applicable to a given product and has a redeemable value that may vary based upon the quantity of a given item, for example, brand of item, size of the product in terms of packaging, and/or the price point of the given item. A typical coupon may also be redeemable only at a given retailer and/or within a threshold time period.
The ability to target or distribute a coupon to a user may have an associated value independent of its redeemable value. Additionally, information about a user may have a value to a coupon provider greater than the redeemable value of the coupon. Accordingly, a coupon provider may pay a premium to have its coupon reach the user. U.S. Patent Application No. 2008/0040229 to Gholston discloses auctioning the right to distribute an electronic coupon. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0035536 to Gellman discloses submitting a potential customer's list to a reverse auction system and receiving a bid on the list and presenting the bid to the user. The bid includes a price for the list and may also include a coupon. Manufacturers' information can be entered by manufacturers into, for example, a coupon and other offerings database including coupon, incentive, and other offerings information, which is accessed by a bid engine. The manufacturers retrieve information about consumer shopping preferences from the bid engine through a consumer history database and from this information, the manufacturers have the ability to formulate incentive coupon offerings.